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At the turn of the twentieth century there was a resurging impulse toward social and political reform. In some ways it continued tendencies already apparent since the industrial revolution of the early nineteenth century, in which...

Glossary Term – Person

Frances Perkins (1880–1965) was an industrial reformer and the first female member of a president’s Cabinet. Perkins started her career as a social worker and worked briefly at Jane Addams’s Hull House. In 1912 Perkins became the executive secretary of the Consumers’ League of New York. She went on to serve several labor agencies, including the New York State Industrial Commission, the New York Council of Organization for War Service, and the State Industrial Board. She was named New York State industrial commissioner in 1929 by then...